The marriage rate in the U.S. began a steady decline in the early 1970s before leveling off around 2009 at much lower levels. Keep reading if you’re not married. Younger Americans have lost sight of the reality that marriage benefits are amazing. A lot of Millennials don’t realize the positive impact getting married can have on your finances, your longterm health, and your future children.

Financial marriage benefits

• Married spouses qualify for an estate tax marital deduction. Not so for domestic partners.

• Married spouses qualify for the gift tax marital deduction. Not so for domestic partners.

• Ms. Ashford goes on to reveal other significant benefits for spouses when it comes to Individual Retirement Accounts (IRAs), Social Security benefits, and health insurance savings. If your spouse dies, you have more protection if you’re married than not.

Some of you reading this view these benefits as an abstraction, something you can deal with way down the road. Perhaps. But when that day comes, you may have wished you had gotten married.

Health benefits of marriage

If the financial marriage benefits are significant, the health benefits are even more significant. As we pointed out in an earlier blogpost [“Marriage is good for your health”], married people:

√ Live longer than single people.

√ Experience fewer strokes and heart attacks.

√ Have a lower risk of depression.

√ Have a lower risk for advanced cancer.

√ Survive longer when cancer does strike.

√ Are better able to survive major operations.

The health benefits for men are especially profound. Both unmarried women and men have much higher rates of depression than their married counterparts, but with men, the differential is glaring. Unmarried men are nine times as likely as married men to suffer from depression.

Marriage is so therapeutic to men, that a married man with heart disease will live an average of four years longer than a single man with a healthy heart.

And did you know that unmarried people spend twice as much time in hospitals as married people?

Okay, you’re going to be happier, richer, and healthier if you get married. Anything else. Actually, yes. I save the best for last.

Marriage benefits to your children are amazing

If you’re ever blessed with children, data shows that kids fare better in families where mom and dad are married. These children are more likely to enjoy longterm health and prosperity than their peers being raised by cohabiting parents. Even more, they are far more likely to avoid the social pathology that afflicts so many of our youth, such as addiction, dropping out of school, and crime.

What’s interesting is that studies from 13 other countries all had similar results: the marriage benefits for children are incalculable.

Marriage benefits begin with a wedding. If you’re planning your wedding, Denon & Doyle provides world class entertainment that will propel you into your new healthier and happier lifestyle with flair.